Nashville Mayoral Candidate Says She Won’t Run Negative Campaign Ads

One of the seven major candidates running for Nashville’s mayor told supporters she plans to avoid running negative ads during her campaign. 

Linda Rebrovick, a businesswoman and CEO of market research firm Consensus Point, unveiled her platform Thursday at the Entrepreneur Center. Rebrovick said she wants to keep Nashville business-friendly and install new technology around the city, and then she talked about the vision for her campaign:

“I’m going to make a pledge today that might catch a few people by surprise: I am not going to attack my opponents, not on TV, not on the radio, not on mail, not anywhere.”

But the pledge doesn’t surprise John Geer, a Vanderbilt political science professor who’s written a book on negative campaign ads — at least at this point in the campaign.

When you’re one of six candidates in the running and you attack someone else, “as you drive that person’s favorability down, you often drive your own down,” he says. “It can come back to hurt you — and help somebody who’s not involved in the scrape.”

If the campaign heats up and boils down to two contenders, Geer says, it will be harder to avoid taking shots.

The bid for mayor officially expanded to seven candidates Thursday afternoon, after Davidson County Criminal Court clerk Howard Gentry confirmed he was running for mayor.